Many known cousins have been omitted from this sketch to protect their privacy, but they are always welcome to contact me.

Parmenas Wellington Moreshead, son of John Moreshead & Mary Ann Vincent was born on Nov 7 1868 in Knutsford, Prince Edward Island, and he was baptized on Sep 8 1871 in Alberton, PEI[i]. He married Edith “Maud” Ellis daughter of Robert Douglas Ellis and Elizabeth “Melinda” Rogers on Nov 29 1893 in Cambridge, MA[ii]. Edith was born on Jun 17 1871 in Ellerslie, PEI, and was baptized Dec 19 1883 in Port Hill, PEI[iii].

Just after Parmenas & Maud married they removed to Nova Scotia for a brief time which is evidenced by the births of their oldest children Wilson & Dorothy. By 1901 they returned to live on the John Moreshead Family Homestead in Knutsford Prince Edward Island, and remained until about 1912 or so when they moved to McNeill’s Mills, PEI. In 1917 Edith & most of the children immigrated to Malden, MA to join Parmenas & their older sister Dorothy, as well as many unts, uncles & cousins. No doubt, it had to be difficult life for Maud. It seems at least part of the time, she was working a farm & raising the kids alone. So beautiful in the younger picture of her and yet the lines of decades beyond her are engraved in a mere 24 years.

Parmenas was not a farmer in his heart and struggled with a lot of aspects surrounding it according family & people who I met that knew him when I was a child. I believe it is safe to say, he traveled back & forth to Massachusetts in an effort to pursue work that would let him escape the life of a farmer. Maud implies on the 1917 Passenger List (noted in more detail in the endnotes) that as early as 1890 she would visit in Cambridge. Priscilla, his sister, & the informant on his death record, states that he had resided in the Malden area for 35 years. This places his original arrival in about 1888. Despite this, it must not have been fulltime as he has not been found on a directory that early.

He died on Nov 1 1923 in Malden Ma of a cerebral hemorrhage which was compounded by exhaustion. He was buried on Nov 4 1923 in Forestdale Cemetery, Malden, Ma. not far from the gazebo[iv]. Maud died on Feb 18 1928 in Malden Ma from the effects of a stroke, and was also buried in Forestdale Cemetery, Malden, Ma[v]. Census details for Parmenus & his family can be found here[vi]. The passenger record details of Maud & many of the children immigrating can be found here[vii]. Parmenas & Edith “Maud” had the following children:

1. Wilson Miles Moreshead was born on 24 Jun 1896 in Lower Stewiake, Nova Scotia, although there are some discrepancies on the birthdates recorded on the censuses[viii]. According to the 1901 Census, he was born on his grandfather John Moreshead’s birthday.
Wilson served in WWI in the Canadian Army & although the complete record has not arrived yet, we know he signed his Attestation Paper on Apr 5, 1918 and that he arrived home from Witley Camp Surrey, England in Sept 1919[ix]. He never married or had children.
Evidently, he had a lot of psycholgical difficulties, perhaps because of his experience in the war, or some other reason. We do not know. Clearly, he had a difficult life whatever the reasons. The 1930 census shows he was in Danvers State Hospital at age 33. It states he came to US in 1916 at age 21 and was not naturalized[x]. He was not located on the 1940 Census, but it is implied on his death record that he was in the Metropolitan State Hospital in Lexington/Waltham, MA for 1y5m6d which calculates to Apr 11 1940.
He died on Sep 17 1941 in Lexington, Ma. The record states Wilson Miles Moreshead was formerly a resident at 55 No Milton St Malden, which was his sister Dorothy’s address at the time. The cause of death appears to be suffocation via the inhalation of dirt, perhaps after falling from a tractor. He was found dead in field where he had been working[xi]. My grandmother’s 1941 Diary reads, Sep 17 1941: “ At noon to-day Roy & Dorothy came & told me my brother Wilson passed away. He was only 45 years old June 24th. Poor fellow he got very little out of life.” Sept 18, 1941 [Dorothy] “ & I & Ed went to see Wilson he looked fine. I feel a lot better over it now as he is so much better off.” Sept 19 1941 “In the evening Dorothy, Roy, Clara, Everett, Jessie, Jimmy & Thelma, Ed & I all went to see Wilson. We found out he didn’t die of a heart attack, his death was an accident, afterward they all came here for coffee.” Sept 20 1941 “This afternoon Wilson was buried. The service was lovely. The new minister Mr Buzzell is very nice. It was a private funeral just the members of the family. Poor fellow he is at peace now.”
He was buried in Forestdale Cemetery, Malden, Ma. His grave was unmarked except by flowers I planted for a few years, but my mother got him a stone. It is lot 515 relatively near Edward & Gladys Stevenson’s grave which is on the far right side of the cemetery near the corner. Wilson’s is about 50′ away on the other side of the little road & gate.

2. Mary Melinda “Dorothy/Dot” Moreshead was born on 25 Dec 1897 in Lower Stewiake, Nova Scotia[xii]. Mary married Roy Milligan on May 4 1918[xiii]. He was the brother of Claude who married Dorothy’s sister Orrell. Dorothy & Roy‘s Massachusetts Census details can be found here[xiv]. They removed to Northwood, NH about 1941[xv]. He died in 1981; she died on 17 Jan 1995 in Northwood, NH and they were buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, Northwood, NH[xvi].

3. Clara Lousie Moreshead was born on 25 Dec 1899 in Knutsford, Prince Edward Island[xvii]. Clara married Stedman or Steadman Harpell, son of Issac Harpell & Susan M. Byers on Jun 23 1926 in Nashua, NH, although they were both residents of Everett, MA at the time[xviii]. In 1930 they lived in Malden with their two sons[xix], and by 1940 she is a widow, back in Everett with her young sons[xx]. Due to this, it is certain he died between1930-40, although the exact date is not known to me at this time. Clara, or as she was called later in life, Claire, began dating Everett P. Towers sometime before Christmas of 1940, as it is mentioned in Gladys Stevenson’s Diary that he gave her “a lovely watch for Christmas also an Electrolux Vacuum cleaner”[xxi]. They were married in Kingston, NH Apr 5 1942, and according to that rcord he was the son of Jesse Towers of Connecticut & his late wife Zilpha Phillips[xxii].

“Aunt Clara” as I knew her, always made me smile. She was such a bright, funny & fashionable woman I just loved it when she visited. In one of the letters written to my mother, which I now have, she recalled the trip from the island to Massachusetts in 1917[xxiii]. It states in part:“we left Bourden on the Ferry, arrived at Cape Formentine N.B., took the train from there to St. John’s N. B. stayed there overnight, it was in the middle of World War I, we had to go to the immigration office to be interviewed to find out if we were of German descent, then we traveled by train to Vinceboro, Maine from there to North Station, Mass. We were met by Dorothy and my dad. The trip was exciting. Gladys and I flirtedwith all the young Canadian soldiers, they bought us bars of candy (big deal) then, they were so handsome we sat away in back of my mother who was busy attending to the four younger ones. We had a ball until she looked back & found us sitting with the soldiers, she promptly came back, took us out of the seat, sat us in front of her, there we stayed until we got to the next train. Was our faces red, no fooling around in those days, all our fun came to us screeching hault. We were happy going into a new life, meeting new people and spreading our wings – we were real hicks from the farm. I loved being brought up on a farm, never a headache, or worry, lots of good food etc. with friendly kind caring people. I wouldn’t exchange that part of my life for anything, but when I started to get the boy flirting stage and thoughts of getting married one day, I did not want to be a farmer’s wife. I wanted a City guy and a dab of perfume behind my ear instead of the smell of horse and cow manure. But I have always been a country girl at heart. I love the wide open spaces and good country fresh air, that is why I love living in Woolwich, Me, every time we go shopping we pass many open fields with cows and horses, reminds me of PEI. We live in the country part of Woolwich there are some lovely roads with beautiful houses, many doctors, and well of people, but not near us at all, we love the real country part so quiet and peaceful.”
Sometime after Everett’s death Nov 13 1972 in Lynnfield, MA where they had lived for many years[xxiv]. Claire moved to Woolwich, ME before 1984 and died Jan 1 1989[xxv].

4. Mildred “Gladys” Moreshead believed without doubt she was born on 20 Dec 1901[xxvi]. Sadly there aren’t church or government records of her birth, and it is the same case with some of her siblings as well. The church where she & some of her siblings were baptized, located in Knutford burned down at one point and all the records were lost. In addition, government records were not required to be filed on PEI until 1906. The earliest record available for her is the 1911 Census which states Dec 1902, and it also seems to imply many of her sibling’s births are possibly off by a year. It had definitely been a problem for her during her life. Her naturalization papers also state Dec 20 1902, because of this Social Security insisted she was born in 1902 & made her wait a the extra year for benefits, because she could not prove she was born in 1901. Gladys married Edward Thomas Stevenson of Everett, Ma in Jan of 1923. He died Feb 12 1962[xxvii]. She passed away on Feb 11 1976[xxviii].

5. Minnie “Irene” Moreshead was born on Dec 12 1903 in Knutsford, Prince Edward Island and married Arthur Peters[xxix]. They resided in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and she died after Feb 1976[xxx].

6. Iva Eunice Moreshead was born on Nov 24 1905 in Knutsford, Prince Edward Island[xxxi]. Iva married Waldorf Flateau between 1920-1925, probably in Massachusetts [xxxii]. They lived at 17 Fremont St in Malden in 1930[xxxiii]. She died May 5 1956 after a long illness[xxxiv]. He died suddenly at age 60 after 1956[xxxv].

7. Orrell Irma Moreshead was born on Jun 7 1908 in Knutsford, Prince Edward Island[xxxvi]. She married Claud Milligan of McNeil’s Mills who was the brother of Dorothy’s husband Roy[xxxvii]. She died June 11, 1955 where she resided in Halifax, NS after a long battle with breast cancer[xxxviii]. Claude died in 1973 & they are buried in Fairview Lawn Cemetery, Halifax,
Nova Scotia[xxxix].

8. Jessie Helen Moreshead was born on Nov 23 1913 in MacNeills Mil, PEI[xl]. Jessie married Frederick Frech, and they lived in Newton, MA[xli]. She died Mar 3 2001 in Concord, MA[xlii].

This is a poem written about the road they lived on in Knutsford, PEI:
The O’Leary Road
By Luke Hughes c1840
‘Tis forty years I think or more
Since I have walked this road before
How lonely then, how dark and still,
For silence reigned on vale and hill.
Tall birch and beech from either side
Hung o’er the road their branches wide.
No sign was there of man’s abode
On all that long O’Leary Road.
The prowling fox and vagrant bear
Long claimed a wild dominion there.
Now woods and wilds have all been cleared;
The fox and bear have disappeared
And passing years have changed the scene
From forest wild to meadows green.
The reaper and the iron plough
Proclaim ‘tis man’s dominion now.
And o’er the large and larger plains
Are spreading fields of ripening grains.
The woods are gone and in their room
Large clover fields and orchards bloom.
The farmer’s toil is well repaid;
To guide the plough his chosen trade.
His sprightly team well-groomed and fed;
His chosen seed with system spread.
To native thrift with practice skilled,
The grateful soil abundance yields.
And me, its merits marks are well bestowed,
For plenty crowns O’Leary Road.

O’Leary Road, by Luke Hughes, Lot 11-was submitted to the Island Farmer from West Devon c 1840, republished in 1992 “Threads of the Past, A History of O’Leary, PEI 1837” a book written by the O’Leary Women’s Shaw Institute. This information c/o “Community of O’Leary” website, a special thanks to Bev Shaw for finding the original source citations for me.